Do you remember Plastic Man?

He was a comic book hero who dressed in red spandex (what else?) and white-framed sunglasses.  His super power was the ability to stretch into any shape imaginable, and he used it to foil evildoers and drive his super-powered friends batty.

You my friend, are Plastic Woman (or Plastic Man, if you prefer to be quite that plastic.)

You have the ability to stretch yourself into just about any shape you can imagine.  All of us do.  Look at all the amazing things human beings can become.

Gymnasts who dazzle with tumbles and flips.  Powerlifters who transform themselves into giants capable of lifting more than a thousand pounds.

Parkour experts who can leap from multistory buildings.  Free divers who can descend hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface on a single breath of air.

Chess players who can memorize dozens of games at a time.  Mathematicians who can solve differential equations in their heads.  Teenagers who can crack a Rubik’s cube in seconds.

We’re surrounded by people who have pushed the limits of human abilities and created something new and incredible.

There are, of course, those who have natural abilities far beyond that of the average person.  But average people like you and me can be so much more than average.

Far, far more.

So what shape do you want to be?  What do you want to become?

Who are you?

Do you embrace the mess, dive in, and see where it takes you?

Or are you the exact opposite: setting goals, ticking off the steps along the way, and marching towards progress with a gleam in your eye?

Dividing all people into two camps is a teensy bit of oversimplification (and heavens, lil’ ol’ me would never suggest oversimplifying things) but it’s not much of a stretch to say that most people approach things somewhere on the spectrum between these two styles.

But you’re not doing anything important just this second, right?  Let’s have some fun and play the “there are two kinds of people in the world” game!

Which type are you?  Are you the Creative Type?

Then let’s wade around a bit in the other pond, the “objective mindset”.  Set a goal, lay out the steps and milestones required to get there, and take your first steps.

[The details of goal-setting are beyond the scope of this post, but there are tons of great resources out there if you’re feeling Googley.  Get some.]

Are you that other animal, the Objective Type?  Do you constantly find yourself setting goals and working towards them?  So let’s flip it.  Find something that interests you, set yourself a frequency and a time limit, and follow it wherever it goes until something emerges.  Some examples:

• Grab some colorful paints and work for 20 minutes a day for a week on that weird-looking water stain on your living room wall
• Open up your laptop and spend an hour every day for a month exploring that strange idea you have for a play
• Sit down with a couple of like-minded friends twice a week for a couple of hours to flesh out that off-the-wall product idea you have

Wherever you normally live, step out of your comfort zone and soak the other side of your brain for awhile.  Start small and finish.

Surprise yourself with what you can do.